Transforming our KM forum into a Future Center
As I was telling you in the entry of the 28 September 2007, our KM forum is preparing itself for a transformation into a Future Center. The deliberations between its members were dealing with the target purpose, content, and form. We have decided to try and resolve these in local face-to-face meetings around the world, to be followed by an on-line overall gathering after we are better prepared.
Alice MacGillivray pointed at the expected dilemma for the defining team. My recommendation is to position the forum clearly as focused and aligned as possible with the agreed upon goals and to define its competencies to enable it to create the future (to move from visioning to action as fast as possible as Edna Pasher suggested).Complexity and diversity ------------> Focus and alignment
Future prediction ------------> Future creation
The following is my proposition to the Israeli chapter, to try and sketch the scope of our discussion so that we can be better focused and more efficient. My assumptions are:
1. The purpose of the forum is to enable its members to better perform functions facilitated through Knowledge Management.
2. The forum will not be limited to business or enterprises interests.
3. The following matrix describes the scope of KM areas of potential influence:
| Organization type: --> |
Personal |
Enterprises |
Communities |
The world (?) |
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Issue: ↓ |
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Adaptability to change |
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Competitive advantage |
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Economic model |
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Education |
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Ethics |
Effect goal |
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Innovation |
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Knowledge moments |
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Methods |
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Organizational culture |
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Sustainability |
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… |
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… |
We will add other issues as required, and at the intersection of any organization type and an issue we will try to specify 'effect goals'. As Jack Ring said: "'Effect' goals can be translated to Value goals and even to Principles of interrelationships". Each of these goals can be examined for Requisite Variety regarding the Extent, Variety and Ambiguity in the organization's context; (Second order cybernetics advises that these must be conducted, on-going, in parallel with specific focus areas)".
Just as a reminder - requisite variety – defined by Ashby, as an organization's internal diversity must match the variety and complexity of the environment in order to deal with challenges posed by the environment (Ashby,
As Bill Hall proposed, the future center is in fact a group or coalition of “future tasters” who would try to extrapolate existing trends into the future and try to learn how to “live” with their potentially good and bad consequences. Having “tasted” the future, these people could then try to develop strategies and educational programs to help maximize benefits and minimize the hazards.
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